Ukrainian citizen sentenced to 11 years in prison in Russia for industry espionage — FSB

December 15, 2015, 12:51 UTC+3The man was was detained by FSB officers in the territory of the Republic of Crimea when he was handing over the money for the obtained secret materials to a Russian citizen

MOSCOW, December 15. /TASS/. The Moscow Regional Court has sentenced Ukrainian citizen Valentin Vygovsky to 11 years in prison for economic and military espionage in Russia’s aerospace industry, the public relations centre of the Federal Security Service of Russia (FSB) told TASS on Tuesday.

"Ukrainian citizen Valentin Petrovich Vygovsky, accused of committing crimes under Article 183, part 1, and Article 276 of the Russian Criminal Code, has been sentenced by the Moscow Regional Court to 11 years imprisonment, the term is to be served in a tight security penal colony," FSB reported.

Vygovsky drew the Federal Security Service’s attention in 2012 - FSB suspected him of collecting and storing commercial classified information obtained through bribery, as well as information constituting state secret, with the aim of passing it to a representative of a foreign state. "To this end, the foreigner went online to search for workers of the aerospace companies of Russia’s military-industrial complex who for a fee agreed to gather and transfer to him confidential technical documentation on the current advanced research and development work. Doing this, Vygovsky was aware that the documentation sought by him constitutes the Russian Federation’s state secret", FSB said.

The security service said that "the Ukrainian citizen intended later to pass the collected data to a representative of a foreign country for monetary reward."

"Vygovsky was detained by FSB officers in the territory of the Republic of Crimea when he was handing over the money for the obtained secret materials to a Russian citizen. During the preliminary investigation, he confessed to recruiting Russian citizens and conducting intelligence activities against Russia," FSB said.